Friday, December 7

advent 2007

As I write this, I have just left a patient’s hospital room on the Rehab Unit. He had been behaving rather ornery, but he was also in great pain: his “tuchus.” “Do you know what your ‘tuchus’ is?” he demanded. I could have guessed, but he really didn’t give me a chance. “It’s your backside – your bottom,” he retorted . . . and his was horribly inflamed and causing him great discomfort!

He had what we more commonly refer to as “bed sores.” Bed sores often happen to a patient who is immobile over a long period of time. After having been confined to his bed and unable to move for more than a month, the skin on this patient’s ‘tuchus’ had broken down . . . and that is painful.

Now, I don’t know if Walter Schurr knew about bedsores – or about ‘tuchuses’ for that matter – when he wrote, but his admonition is still well taken: “Congregation Arise!” Immobile and confined because of our fears and discomfort – our unconcern and indifference – faith and hope can break down and life become onerous and uncomfortable. Get up! Sound the trumpets! Drum the timpani! Shout for joy and sing praises to God! We have been given this wonderful gift of life and to whom much is given, much is expected. Yes, Congregation, something wonderful has happened . . . and we should get up off of our ‘tuchuses’ and be glad!
– Don Marlar